1. Technical Field
This invention relates, in general, to audio systems and, in particular, to the spectral management of audio signals generated by an audio system.
2. Related Art
Audio/video systems, such as a home entertainment system or a vehicle entertainment system, have progressed well beyond AM/FM compact disk players with only two or four speakers and two channel audio signals. Presently vehicle audio systems are more like home entertainment centers with satellite receivers and compact disc (CD)/digital video disc (DVD) players with five or more speaker locations. Similarly, home audio/video systems have progressed from two channel stereo systems to surround sound audio systems, such as 7.1 surround sound audio systems.
Unlike prior audio or audio/video systems that used a single input audio signal or channel (commonly called “mono” audio), present day audio/video systems typically make use of two input audio signals or channels (left and right audio signals) when reproducing recorded or transmitted sounds. The two audio signals are processed and surround sound audio signals are created by applying signal processing to the two audio signals to generate a higher number of output audio signals. Each of the newly created audio signals may be a broadband signal but not reproduced by a broadband loudspeaker.
Thus, there is a need for spectral management in audio systems that take speaker transducer characteristics into consideration when dividing and routing the frequencies of input audio signals.